What is Ukiyo-e?

In this magical holiday season of light it’s important to remember what’s truly important about the holidays. Family, friends, love♥️Joy, and happiness is the true spirit of the season.
I would like to introduce to you the Japanese word Ukiyo-e.

Sometimes we make a big deal of things and circumstances in our life in day to day situations, while at other times we are more able to shrug things off and go with the flow of life.
How we react to small hassles everyday has a direct effect on our stress level and our joy. When we let mundane incidents get to us like a missed train or a broken printer were teaching ourselves that life is always stressful, but if we can learn to brush aside the small stuff, we reduce our day to day stress and overtime we build our capacity to stay calm for the bigger things, like a flooded basement. As we learn this fine art of letting things go it can be helpful to embody Ukiyo-e though it literally translates to floating world Ukiyo-e refers to someone who can sit in the present moment and doesn’t let the small stuff get under their skin. We can evolve these skills through our mindfulness practices which teaches us how to be in the moment and how to face little irritations with patience and acceptance.

So the next time you cancel your lunch date or wait for the cable installer, who never shows up, embody this idea of Ukiyo-e. View this as a rare time and treat it as a luxury to be able perhaps to linger over a cup of tea ️ in silence and peace. As Robert Elliott reminds us :

“ Rule number one is don’t sweat the small stuff. Rule number two, it’s all small stuff.”
🕉♥️🏻